With the upcoming release of Ghost of Tsushima, it’s time to look at everything we know so far and why you should be excited about this game. Releasing on the 17th of July, this game will be a final sendoff to the dearly loved PS4, a system that has brought us some masterpieces like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and God of War. Now it’s time for Sucker Punch, one of Sony’s long-lasting first-party studios, to take the limelight with Ghost of Tsushima.
Honestly, the coolest thing about this game is the setting. Set on Tsushima Island in the 1270s during the first Mongol invasion of Japan, the game takes inspiration from different periods of Japanese history, so the setting is divorced from real history. While it’s interesting to play in a historically accurate world like Red Dead Redemption II or Kingdom Come: Deliverance, there is room for games like this that use a really interesting setting but allow the developers to take inspiration from other points in history.
Judging from the nearly 20-minute long gameplay reveal, the game seems to have taken some inspiration from the open world of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Where games like Far Cry 5 point you to every single event in the world, Breath of the Wild leads you to points of interest organically. Ghost of Tsushima seems to be a nice middle ground between these two games. There are question marks on the map to lead you to camps and other points of interest, but the game encourages you to look for distant smoke or animals that are trying to lead you somewhere. This kind of exploration was my favourite part of 2017’s Breath of the Wild, so I’m interested in seeing this style of open world in other games. Open-world fatigue is something many gamers experience, so changing up the formula slightly could help alleviate this issue.
The combat is split up into two styles, the first being the way of the honourable samurai, fighting enemies one-by-one and respecting their dead bodies after you win the duel. This style of combat gameplay seems to be an easier melding of both Nioh and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, something that will get many people excited, having multiple stances and parry mechanics. The second part, and the one I’m most excited about, is the way of the dishounourable ghost. Sneaking around an enemy camp while taking them out stealthily is one of the best parts of playing these open-world games. Having two distinct styles of play will really help vary up the gameplay. This combined with a seemingly robust customization system should make for an engaging gameplay loop.
Sucker Punch has created some intriguing open worlds in the past with their Infamous series, so let’s hope they can do the same here. What are you most excited about in Ghost of Tsushima? Let us know in the comments below!